Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce labor, the manslaughter of one woman during an abortion procedure, and of several other abortion- and drug-related crimes.
[13][14][15] In 2011, Gosnell, his wife Pearl, and eight employees were charged with a total of 32 felonies and 227 misdemeanors in connection with numerous deaths, illegal abortion procedures, and regulatory violations.
"[28] That same year, Gosnell also performed fifteen televised second-trimester abortions, using an experimental and dangerous "Super Coil" method invented by Harvey Karman.
[29] The 1972 Inquirer article also said that Gosnell was a "respected man" in his community, and a finalist for the Junior Chamber of Commerce's "Young Philadelphian of the Year" because of his work directing the Mantua Halfway House.
The owner of Atlantic Women's Services, Leroy Brinkley, also owned Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and facilitated the hiring of staff from there for Gosnell's operation in Philadelphia.
[45] Observers claimed that there was a complete failure by Pennsylvania regulators who had overlooked other repeated concerns brought to their attention, including lack of trained staff, "barbaric" conditions, and a high level of illegal late-term abortions.
The investigation had also revealed the suspicious 2009 death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old refugee from Bhutan, which had in turn brought to light further information about unsanitary operations, use of untrained staff (including teenagers), and use of powerful drugs without proper medical supervision and control.
Thus, when the February 2010 raid took place, staff from Pennsylvania's departments of state and health also attended, as these issues were under their remit:[47] When the team members entered the clinic, they were appalled, describing it to the Grand Jury as 'filthy,' 'deplorable,' 'disgusting,' 'very unsanitary, very outdated, horrendous,' and 'by far, the worst' that these experienced investigators had ever encountered.
All the women had been sedated by unlicensed staff— long before Gosnell arrived at the clinic— and staff members could not accurately state what medications or dosages they had administered to the waiting patients.
Media reports stated that furniture and blankets were stained with blood, that freely roaming cats defecated wherever they pleased, and that non-sterilized equipment was used and reused on patients.
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania also alleged that Gosnell's former office staff at Women's Medical Society ran a prescription "pill mill".
[67] He accused the government of a "lynching" and stated, "This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give [back] to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia.
However, this statement is contradicted by records showing that he and his wife owned at least seventeen properties across four states, including a million dollar house in Brigantine, New Jersey.
[71] Brenda Green, executive director of CHOICE, a nonprofit that connects the underinsured and uninsured with health services, told Katha Pollitt of The Nation that "it tried to report complaints from clients, but the department wouldn't accept them from a third party.
[72] Inspections (other than those triggered by complaints) had ceased under the governorship of Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, as they were perceived to create a barrier to women seeking abortion services.
It stated that, while some might see the issue and case through the lens of pro- and anti-abortion politics, it was in reality: not about that controversy; it is about disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of mothers and infants.
[90]The report also examined the failings of official parties, and the key findings, analyzed in two categories:[106] Janice Staloski of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, who personally participated in the 1992 site visit, but decided to let Gosnell slide on the violations that were already evident then.
She eventually rose to become director of the division that was supposed to regulate abortion providers, but never looked at Gosnell despite specific complaints from lawyers, a doctor, and a medical examiner.
Attorneys Mark Greenwald, Charles Hartwell, David Grubb, Andrew Kramer, William Newport, Juan Ruiz, and Kerry Maloney were confronted with a growing pile of disquieting facts about Gosnell, including a detailed, inside account from a former employee (Marcella Choung, 2001[107]), and a 22-year-old dead woman.
[146] The family of Karnamaya Mongar brought a wrongful death suit against Gosnell and sought to freeze his assets to prevent him from transferring them to other people to avoid paying.
[147][148] In September 2015, a judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas court awarded nearly $4 million in compensatory damages to Mongar's daughter, Yashoda Devi Gurung.
The only case for which any reports were produced was that of Semika Shaw, a 22-year-old, who died at the University of Pennsylvania hospital as a result of bleeding and sepsis caused by a botched procedure by Gosnell.
[151] In part as a result of the grand jury report on Gosnell, in late 2011, Pennsylvania passed a law, SB 732, that places abortion clinics under the same health and safety regulations as other outpatient surgical centers.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D-PA) said, "I think it's quite clear that, if these allegations are true, we've had a monster living in our midst" while vowing to watch the city's remaining abortion clinics more closely.
[166] Vicki Saporta, President of the National Abortion Federation, defended the organization's failure to report by noting that although Gosnell had been rejected for membership following inspection, because his clinics did not meet appropriate standards of care "they'd cleaned the place up and hired an RN [registered nurse] for our visit.
"[168] Dayle Steinberg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, says she knew that Gosnell had provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, but says she hadn't heard of any problems at his clinic until the allegations surfaced.
[171] Kermit Gosnell himself gave an interview to Fox affiliate WTXF-TV in February 2011,[69] in which he stated that: A perception had built up among some journalists and anti-abortion groups that there had been a reluctance to report on the trial among mainstream media.
In an April 11, 2013, opinion column for USA Today, Kirsten Powers wrote: "A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months", and that national press coverage was represented by a Wall Street Journal columnist who "hijacked" a segment on Meet the Press, a single page A-17 story on the first day of the trial by The New York Times, and no original coverage by The Washington Post.
"Mullane retweeted the photo a few more times, with different captions, because it had been packed into a snowball (of criticism)" which included Powers' column for USA Today, Weigel wrote.
[181] They ultimately decided that, in fact, the story warranted attention because of "the seriousness and scope of the alleged crimes and because this was a case that resonated in policy arguments and national politics", adding "In retrospect, we regret not having staffed the trial sooner.